July 24 Spain and France

Blog 3 July 24, 2010 Spain and France
Yesterday Nadia and I and 7 Iraqi men went on a road trip in a mini-van to the French and Spanish Mediterranean coast. Dr. Adil arranged the trip, got the van, and drove. It was beautiful driving through the Mediterranean countryside, with rolling hills. They were growing sunflowers, who smiled and waved as we drove past. It looks a lot like California, with oaks and pines and many of our plants escaped from here.
The roads are much better than California. You have to go through toll booths, but they don’t tell you how to pay or what to pay. We consistently got stuck and sat with our emergency lights on, a line of impatient traffic honking behind us, until some Spanish toll keeper came to tell us what to do.
We stopped at a lovely little town in France. There is a botanist among us. And we walked and looked at the lovely streams and plants. Beautiful sycamore trees lined the banks of the stream. I bought a beautiful blouse and skirt from France on sale! After shopping, we went to the coast. The little towns have tile roofs, and are beautifully colored pinkish tan, yellow and tan. Many have the shutters and trim painted in blue. I had a salmon-cheese crepe by the sea then went for a walk on the beach. I had a feeling my step-daughter Joeanna was having her baby. Kept trying to figure my phone out and call, finally got a picture of Nolan and showed it to all the Iraqi’s. they were happy for me and congradulated Joeanna and the baby.
The following pictures are from our trip and Barcelona. The first is of Tova Fleming, myself and Dr. Nadia Fawzi in the streets of Barcelona. The second is a street in one of the lovely coastal towns, then myself looking out to the Mediterranean Sea.

Driving back, we passed castle after castle. You could imagine Don Quixote in these hills, riding through the country side. It was very beautiful, wish we could have stayed longer. It was beautiful evening light, and the hills rolled into blue in the late afternoon. We crossed crops, forests, streams and very few homes. It appeared to be mostly small farming communities, with tourism along the coast. Most of the people are in the big sprawling area of Barcelona. We had a really fun day, ending with a Pakistan restaurant in Barcelona with chicken massala!